Did you know that nine out of 10 people who are newly diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes are overweight? The American Diabetic Association estimates that 80% of the 15 million individuals who suffer from Type 2 Diabetes are significantly overweight and that the obesity contributes greatly to the development of the disease.
It is no secret that a slow, intentional weight loss will decrease the risk of health problems and diabetes is included in that list. This weight loss will also reduce the need for insulin, improve cardiovascular health and improve lipid profiles. By achieving these goals you also reduce your risk factors for developing stroke, heart attack, retinal damage and kidney failure. (1)
However, losing weight and keeping it off is as much of a challenge for those who have diabetes as it is for those who don’t. If it were not a challenge then the thousands of weight loss programs that are currently making billions of dollars every year would be out of business. The weight loss industry has become a multibillion dollar industry due to the difficulty that people find in removing excess baggage. As a diabetic it is important that you engage the help of other professionals to help you lose weight that you require in order to decrease your need for external insulin and medication.
Losing weight as a diabetic is accomplished the same way that weight loss is achieved under any other circumstance. Weight gain or weight loss is simply a mathematical equation of how many calories are eaten versus how many are spent. In other words, if an individual burns off 1500 calories per day but eats 2000 calories per day they will gain weight. If the reverse is true they will lose weight.
Each pound of body weight is equal to 3500 calories. If there is a negative caloric intake of 500 calories per day and individual should be able to lose 1 pound of body weight each week.
While weight loss of 1 pound a week is a realistic goal, too many times we want our results to happen today. When an individual decides to lose weight they often want to lose 10 pounds this week. If you really lost 10 pounds in one week you would have to have a negative calorie intake of 35,000 calories! This is not possible. To achieve this it would require that metabolism was increased through some external chemical response, such as chemotherapy or cancer, and you had stopped eating altogether.
References:
(1) Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health: Relation of Weight gain and Weigh Loss on Subsequent Diabetes Risk in Overweight Adults
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1731720/
(2) American Diabetes Association: Food and Fitness Weight Loss
http://www.diabetes.org/food-and-fitness/fitness/weight-loss/
(3) American Diabetes Association: Food and Fitness Physical Activity
http://www.diabetes.org/food-and-fitness/fitness/weight-loss/physical-activity/
(4) Drugs.com: Byetta
http://www.drugs.com/byetta.html
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